Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-08-18
COAL-MINE RATS.
Privileged Characters Among Dig-er,-
Stealing Dinners and Gnawing the
EetIocks of Mules.

| persons intelligence he says he knows
as much as mine rat. And this is a
| compliment, too, can tell You. for a
mine rat knows enough to satisfy any
man. They not only know heap, but
| they do funny things. [ have known
| them to break up long strike IN the
| mines when every other effort to bring
it to close had failed, and | remember
| instances when they have become so
| numerous in mines that it was necess-
airy to suspend operations until they
could be thinned out by attacks of the
| miners.
SIN one mine near Hazleton, where
! l live, the rats were so numerous few
years ago and became so bold that it
was impossible for the miners to keep
any feed for themselves, and even the
soap, lamp OIL and other supplies used
| in their work were devoured by the
army of rats that oyerran the chambers
The persistent animals would gnaw
through the tool boxes in very short
time and get at the supplies The
miners were forced to bury their
dinner-pails beneath piles of slate and
coal to prevent the animals getting at
the contents, and even then they FREE
quently dug down and secured the
victuals. Many a time miner would
be compelled to fight horde of hun
CRY rats that disputed with him for the
possession of his lunch.
Sin the mine | am speaking of the
rats not only robbed the mules of all
their feed, but attacked the mules
themselves. 1t was a common thing for
miners, going to work in the morning,
to find the floors covered with hundreds
of rats that had been trampled to death
by the mules, and it seemed to be a
favorite act with the rats to gnaw the
fetlocks of the mules, frequently eating
them away, Notwithstanding the frantic
tramping of the mules and the scores
of their own numbers that were crushed
beneath the mules feet. / have N.Y.
self seen mine rats covering stable
floor foot deep, having thus fallen
victims to their greed for live mule
flesh
''ln this mine matters got so desper-
ate for the miners that something had
to be done. The mules grew thin and
weak and could not do their work.
The miners got tired of losing their
dinners day after day, and it seemed to
be Il question of only a short time when
it would be impossible to work the
mine at all. So at last the operators
ordered the mules taken out and work
abandoned until the rats could be ex-
terminated. Poisoned food was scat
cred about in the mine and left there
do its work. This was done so effect
ually that three days afterward, when
the men re-entered the mine, they
found the tunnels so thickly strewn
with dead rats that the carcasses filled
three mine-cars holding ton and
half each.
LAS general thing a coal miner will
not harm q rat. Some miners would
as soon think of killing his children as
he would of killing a mine rat. The
reason of that is that these animals
will not stay in a mine where danger is
threatened. Miners say that these
rats have instinct that warns them of
pending fall of roof or similar acct
dent in mine, and when they are
seen scampering away from one Sec
ton of the mine to another the work
men know they are giving them a
danger signal, and they hurry away in
response to it, and the chances are that
there will be cavein in the section
thus abandoned. [ know of several
instances where the lives of many
miners have been saved by this belief
in the rat as a danger signal, and also
of the loss of life by others who ridi-
culed the idea. Once, near Hazelton,
the rats left a mine in droves, and the
men-there were fifty of them at work
lost no time in getting out also. Be-
fore the day was over the entire section
where they had been working caved in
At Harleigh, few years ago, there
was a similar case, except that three
Of the miners refused to quit work.
The fall of the roof closed them in, and
their bodies were never recovered
Seventeen mules persisted with them.
The fall was so great that the mine
was destroyed and no attempt was
ever made to work it again.
1.-The belief in mine rats giving
warning of danger is based on good
grounds. The theory is that when a
mine begins to work, as the quiet set
ting OF one preparatory to a big cave
in is called, the rats are disturbed in
their holes and hiding places as they
became contracted, and they hurry
away to seek places of safety. That
Is all there is about it, but the miners
attribute it to something much deeper
than that simple cause, and conse-
quently have a feeling for the mine rat
akin to awe.
''lt is a common sight to see miner
feeding half a dozen or more from his
dinner-pail. Frequently they become
so tame that they will climb on a miners
lap as he sits at his lunch, and crowd
around him to receive such portions OF
his meal as he taught them to accept.
Some of them grow to an enormous
size, and there is a story told among
the miners near Hazleton about how
one of their number once fed and
trained dozen or more, which had
grown to such dimensions that he used
them in harness, and they drew his
buggy of coal daily from the breast
where he worked to the dumping place.
There are people who don't believe
that, but it was told to me by a man
who worked with the miner who had
the rats, and he says it is a fact. But
I've seen mine rats myself as bio as q